About two years ago we got four new pet rats. (These bring my total of rats to 23 over the past 15 years.) I got them from a breeder for $70 each. Wow, rats are cheap!
No.
Last Christmas day I noticed a lump on the side of Rorschach’s head. A lump on a rat is never a good sign. I took him to the vet and she aspirated the lump and got some pus out, so decided it was an infected cyst and prescribed an antibiotic, and also sent the sample out for culturing. $507.
A few days later, his hind leg suddenly became very inflamed and swollen. Another trip to the vet. The head lump was not responding to the antibiotics either, so they opened the lump, injected some antibiotics and prescribed new ones. $611.
A couple of weeks later, the head lump was looking much worse. Vet took a sample for histology. Determined it was a tumor, not a cyst. Untreatable. $279.
By June, Rorschach had lasted longer than expected, but was in poor shape. It was time for euthanasia. $220.
Around the same time, Cooper developed some odd looking sores on his back. Vet couldn’t determine what they were but prescribed antibiotics. $219. By mid July, no improvement so we decided to do a biopsy. $890. Biopsy showed nothing but inflammation, so we started an anti-inflammatory drug. $46.
Cooper’s back has improved but is not completely clear. A few days ago, I noticed a small lump on his jaw, and also a large lump on Felix’s flank. Took them both in to the vet yesterday. Vet can’t tell what Cooper’s lump is, so aspirated it and sent the sample out for cytology. $443 for the exam and cytology. Felix’s lump is probably a mammary tumor. Vet recommends removing it. Exam was $129. Estimate for the surgery is about $1000.
Rats are not cheap. Either in money or in emotional distress.
In 2006, about two and a half years after moving to Prague, I bought two pet rats. They each only cost about, I don’t know, 85 Czech Crowns??? Super cheap. But when I paid for the cage, the wood chips, the feed, the water bottle, and the book about raising rats, the total bill came out to about 650 or 700 Crowns. Today it would probably be something like 1000-1500 Crowns. Not an exorbitant investment.
I think rats are super cool and cute. With all due respect, they’re more interesting than mice. I love their long snouts and their beautiful pink tails. And they’re very clever.
Unfortunately, one of my rats became ill after about 9 months. I took him to the vet but while I was sitting in the waiting room, he went into a horrible convulsion and died in my hands. A very unpleasant experience.
The other rat got sick too. He became lethargic and I think he wouldn’t eat. I took him to the vet as well, and the vet prescibed him some medicine for which I had to pay something. I had to administer it to him with an oral injection, which he fiercely resisted. For a while he seemed to get better, but then he got worse. I finally took him to the vet again, but I wasn’t even able to arrive there before he died. He had lasted maybe 15 months.
I had actually read on the day I bought them, in the book I had bought on raising rats, that domestic rats come from laboratory rats, which apparently have been bred or genetically modified to be suceptible to terminal illnesses and that it is a boon if one lives three years. This, not price, would put me off from buying another pet rat again.
Of my 23 rats, the longest-lived one lived for 38 months. He was also my favorite of all of them. Very sweet and affectionate and loved to be handled. Most of the others made it to 24 months. But it is such an emotional drain to go through a pet’s death, and it seems to come so frequently with rats. Being a rat daddy has been part of me for a long time, but I’m not sure if I’m going to get more after this batch dies.
Oh no, poor babies! I want pet rats, but I’m holding off a bit. I think I’ll have a chance for one more dog. When my life expectancy goes down, rat time.
It is very difficult to find a vet who will treat rats at all, and even harder to find one that is knowledgeable about them. The vet that I had been seeing for years stopped accepting rats a couple of years ago and I had difficulty finding another. As far as I’ve been able to tell, there are only two vets in the whole San Francisco Bay Area (population over 7 million) that specialize in rats, and both primarily treat birds.
Me too! They were perfect for college/grad school lifestyle. Flexible sleep schedule, didn’t have to be walked, compact size needs, affectionate, and they could learn tricks!
Also, would eat pizza crusts as a treat (to learn aforementioned tricks) so, yeah, pretty awesome for college.